2003-04-27-Promoting Spiritual Progress

Session

Opening

Elyon (Jonathan TR): Greetings, I am Elyon. It is a pleasure to dwell with you in this period of silence. Undetected by your ears is a subtle symphony of sound that is a consequence of the vibration presence of the Indwelling Spirit. It is the positioning of this spirit presence in your soul chamber, combined with your willful attention, that creates the harmonics that cause the acoustics. It is a morontia quality. When ones like yourselves gather it creates attention by those as myself who have morontia senses. This assembly of yourselves is itself a song of beauty. You will grow to appreciate such assemblages as you ascend through the worlds of mansonia.

Lesson

Spiritual Economy

Today I wish to draw upon a rather commonplace human experience to indicate the means whereby all of you in concert can be effective in promoting spiritual progress on this world and also to contribute significantly to your personal growth even while the environment you may be engaged in either hinders or simply does not contribute to progress, to upliftment. Many factors propel mankind forward; the obvious ones of comfort, protection, companionship, of power. One that has evolved in the course of your development is economy. While once economy simply was the trading of item for item based on value, it grew more complex, and now on your world not only do you produce for sale and purchase for ownership, you also invest; you become a participant in a business by way of stock ownership. In simpler times a business flourished if people purchased their goods or services.

Now a business may also flourish simply because of the faith, the trust, and the hope that a stockholder places in that concern. When a business is successful, stockholders are rewarded. You also have sophisticated your activities in this manner by developing formulas and techniques through which you may hedge your bets, soften the blows, or increase your yields such that when the market in general fluctuates adversely to your personal goals, you are less likely to be adversely affected. So is this true in the spiritual dimension.

When Michael dwelled upon this world as Jesus he taught to love one another. He taught to love another as you love yourself, to treat each one as your neighbor. This diversification of spiritual perspective protects the soul from shifts in culture and civilization and society that could hurt one's spiritual progress. If you simply spiritually invest only in those close to you, then when tragedy strikes or conditions merely change, you find a reduction in your spiritual wealth. But as you broaden the neighborhood, include in your fellowship more souls, you level the risks. You find even in a passing stranger a counselor and a friend. It is taught that to buy when your market is down increases the likelihood of your success rather than to avoid participation because things look grim.

So it is true in spiritual ministry. If you perceive a low point in the hearts and minds of those around you, that is the time to buy in, to be of service, to minister. While it may be risky to your own happiness to be involved with others when they are down, when they are falling into negativity, that is precisely the point of need, of the hunger for light and truth and love.

What makes an economy strong is its flexibility, its ability to change, to weather the dips and to leverage the highs. Without a dip and without a high the economy stagnates. In a spiritual environment this also holds true. As an individual you may be at a peak in you aspirations, in a project of your growth. Another around you may be at a low, experiencing a recession. This differential stimulates life just as a differential in your stock market stimulates investment.

You may and could have your spiritual experience all by yourself, but that would not make you rich, just as you may have your own business by yourself. It is the cross, exchange, of other souls just as it requires a number of consumers to support your business that you experience vigor, robustness. Some are inclined to create standards for behavior, to codify these to make them religious doctrine. These prove helpful to one beginning the journey to Paradise, for they train and teach skills of moral behavior, ethical conduct, and social sensitivity, respect for God and universe values.

Others teach flexibility, an expression you use, "going with the flow". This heightens the sensitivity to the fact that life is ever- changing, that at no station in your spiritual ascension are you complete, that you as an individual may not have developed the perception for your advancement, and that life itself can provide the clues if you are willing to move along in the stream of spiritual advancement of the many souls that are in your life and upon your world. Just as a good investor will not simply follow the rules of investment, and also just as a shrewd investor will not simply buy what is popular at the time but canvass the great potentials of investment, so do you in your spiritual growth. Applying the rules of religious doctrine may help.

Discerning the flow of spirit enthusiasm in others may help, but there may come a time, or times repeated, where you must discern when you can and should apply yourself contrary to market trends. In your study of the life of the Master you have come to witness that he did not always follow the trend. In a social, spiritual sense Michael came to your world when the spiritual stockmarket was high, when the cultures that he was born into were hungry, impactive, engaged in many spiritual and religious pursuits. Jesus, however, chose not to engage in those forms of religious upliftment. Yes, he did so individually in attending the synagogues and in studying the scriptures, but he did not become one of them. While he applied the precepts of the teachings, he also was willing to invest himself in the search for the Father independent of trends. What resulted was an upliftment in the spiritual economy of this world. It created a new marketplace, that being the brotherhood of mankind. While it has been slow in its growth, the climb has been upward steadily; the returns on the investment will be Light and Life.

In your personal growth you must seek always to be alert to the factors which contribute to your well-being and to discern and choose wisely when rules of behavior help and also to note when you are threatened by directionless, aimless, wandering. In a collective sense, as spiritual religious enthusiasm ebbs and flows, rises and wanes, there are times to engage yourself aggressively in ministry and service, in outpouring love, in strengthening the economy of spiritual beings. There are other times when you, threatened by the collapse of life, must retreat to conserve your light, to preserve your life, as Jesus told his apostles to lay low following his crucifixion, that you may be of better service to your fellows on the rebound.

I encourage you to continue the development of your ability to invest in the well-being of this world, to do so by increasing your assets personally and investing those assets socially. Assets grow through risk taking, and the risk you take in ministry is the potential of rejection, misunderstanding. While that is a short-term loss, a higher risk is not to have encountered another who may teach you in return a valuable lesson which will lift you to a higher level of function. That risk is worth taking, for it increases your spiritual assets. I hope this has given you thoughts to consider. I am willing to receive your feedback at this time.

Dialogue

Soul

Evelyn: I notice you use the word "soul". You don't say "persons" so much as "souls". The difference I think is seeing another as timeless, eternal, not just a face, just this life, and being of equal value to oneself. How do I apply this in my encounters? I often feel I'm invested in too few other souls. This is a vivid image and a useful model, comparing to economic situations.

Elyon: I have chosen "soul" in this instance because of its correlation to this model. Anyone can have a business, but what makes that business valuable is its net worth. Every personality is in a sense its own business. It is your soul that is your net worth. As you value one another -- it is a given that you are personalities -- it is your net worth, the development of your soul, its expansion and growth, that makes you a rich personality. This is why I chose to emphasize the soul element of your being.

Tom: In a material economy you have to scrimp and save just to invest. In the spiritual economy all the Father has is yours for the asking. Michael said we are the salt of the earth which serves in being spent. All you have is what you give away. What comes to mind is the real measure of a man's wealth is how much he would be worth if he lost all his money. It places more value on the spiritual side. We are so used to the physical economy that we aren't aware of the true wealth everywhere.

Elyon: Yes, and your observations are good, for not always do material comparisons equate across the board to spiritual principles. As you have indicated they are at times inverse. For a man may hoard wealth and be empty in soul, and another may abhor wealth and be rich in soul. While this may be true, to abhor wealth will not make you rich in soul, for you must put your energy into soul growth, wealth or not as the economy of your current times has revealed to many who have invested and grew relatively rich only to watch it evaporate as the economy shifted. The spiritual man knows when to shift his assets. Should a country that you perhaps are living in go antagonistic toward religion, the sage knows when to shift his assets to protect his spiritual wealth. An investor who has ten dollars knows that by spending that ten he may gain to twenty, and this is true with spiritual enlightenment. If you have reached a degree of illumination and you give it to another, the other has your initial investment when received, and you double your return. Michael said, "Go forth into the world and proclaim the gospel." He did not say scrape and hoard what you can gather and hide that you may not lose your wealth. As I said early on that the economy must not be stagnant, the spiritual economy is the same. Always will you benefit from giving out, giving away, for the truth that it is blessed to give is followed by the corollary that as you give so do you receive.

Kirk: My daughter is in a dilemma now about moving. She's a spiritual person and could use some words, if it's appropriate.

Elyon: Could you describe some of this dilemma?

Human Condition, Discernment

Kirk: She wants to move and feels it would be spiritual, but she's raising a family where she is, and she is responsible for her mother. The dilemma is whether to do it or not. She's been praying a lot about it. She's always looking for new spiritual ideas. If I could show her words coming from what we receive, maybe it would help.

Elyon: This move you speak of is one on a spiritual level or a physical displacement of...?

Kirk: Both.

Elyon: I will begin by reminding you of the presentation in your Urantia Book of the early adult life of Jesus and his parallel goals of serving the Father and ministering to this planet while bestowed here, and this second of raising his earthly family subsequent to his earth father's death and providing such that the brothers and sisters and his mother would be well off and ready and able to meet the demands of life when he moved on. While his life may be seen as unique compared to all other human lives, he lived according to the manner that all humans do, and that is the balancing act between the spiritual aspirations of an individual and the responsibilities of a family. Jesus longed to have his earthly family settle down on a nice farm. That dream of his never fully manifested. However, he worked steadily toward that goal and adjusted according to the events that took place as the years went by. I encourage your daughter to pursue her dream, to treat the events of life that come her way each day not as obstacles or hindrances but challenges, as sources for revelation wherein she may refine her ideal and develop a clearer avenue through which she may move. These conditions will at times appear to hinder and at other times advance her desires. She may be required to redefine her goal that it may be realized in this lifetime in a different way. All personal spiritual advancement can be made regardless of the conditions of life, but the depth and richness of that advancement are greatly enhanced when confronted by the situations of life, people and places. The desire to grow spiritually is the primary, most important element to any being. The presence of God within is ever drawing the creature towards the Creator.

This lure, this attraction, is translated into your material life. This feeling of moving, the desire to grow, can be superimposed over your physical location and create the desire to move in a physical sense. Quiet reflection and spiritual stillness will clarify whether there is confusion regarding the impulse to move, that a spiritual desire to move is translated into a physical desire to move, or whether changing your location will promote your spiritual life. Recall again the story of Jesus when he left his family and moved to Capernaum. He advanced his subsequent ministry, for he deeply developed his relationship with two soon-to-be apostles. Yet his move did not cripple his family, for it created the conditions in their lives wherein they began to take up the roles that he fulfilled. His move aided his ministry in the years that followed, and his move improved the personality traits, skills, and talents of his brothers and sisters. I offer the advice of prayerful reflection and the application of patience and the encouragement to discern carefully between deep longings in her soul and a wishfulness that may result from a desire for ease, for comfort, that may help in the short term and hinder in the long term. This is an observation that she must make on her own in partnership with the divine presence. I would not however ask her to avoid counsel, for that too clarifies to the human mind in a tangible sense what may be the proper orientation of values and her steps in the process of realizing her longings. I hope this will contribute.

Kirk: Thank you, Elyon. Inspirational words. Thank you, my friend.

Closing

Archives

Elyon: You are welcome. I will draw a close by acknowledging your studies of the transmissions provided to your fellows in another state. These lessons will be beneficial to each of you as they are advancing each of them. It expedites my work for you to take into your minds and your hearts the lessons of my fellow teachers. I thank you for this effort, and I encourage you to continue in this manner. Take care.